KUALA LUMPUR: The Defence Ministry will not compromise on any air, land or sea intrusions of Malaysia's borders, says Deputy Minister Adly Zahari (pic).
Its deputy minister Adly Zahari said Malaysia would take advantage of defence diplomacy in raising the issue of intrusions by foreign fishermen.
"Multilateral cooperation through Asean, sub-regional cooperation and bilateral cooperation are among the best approaches in managing traditional and non-traditional security issues that require the involvement of various parties at the government, military and enforcement agency levels.
"All of these are important components of partnership strategy are found in the National Defence White Paper in defending national sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said during a question and answer session at the Dewan Negara on Wednesday (June 21).
He said this when replying a question by Senator Datuk Dr. Ahmad Azam Hamzah who wanted the Defence Minister to state to what extent the solidarity of the Asean countries is able to ensure the peace of the region from the intervention of world powers.
Ahmad Azam also wanted to know the efforts among neighbouring countries on the issue of fishermen intruding into the waters of other nations in the South China Sea so that the safety and interests of the border are secured.
Adly said that Asean currently works through various multilateral platforms such as the Asean Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) and ADMM Plus with Asean dialogue partners namely the United States, Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Korea and Russia and the Asean Regional Forum.
He said the engagement is to strengthen cooperation and build confidence among member countries in an effort to reduce tension and avoid conflict in the Southeast Asian region.
Replying to an supplementary question from Senator Datuk Noraini Idris regarding the government's measures to ensure that airspace invasion does not occur, Adly said the Ministry of Defence has certain procedures in place in the event of such an incident.
"If our airspace is invaded, one of them is to communicating with the intruder and we have several procedures for intercepting such aircraft," he said. - Bernama
